For hundreds of years the semi-nomadic Inuit from the region that includes the hamlets of Pond Inlet and Igloolik, met at Mary River during the summer hunting caribou.
[3] By 2011, the population of the region was about 5,400 people, many of whom continued the traditional hunting and fishing lifestyle living off the land.
[3] In March 2011, a private equity fund in the United States and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA, the largest steel maker in the world, jointly purchased the small Toronto-based public Canadian company, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, that had owned the Mary River lease since the 1980s.
Wildlife in the region includes polar bears, foxes, ermines, lemmings, and hares, as well as caribou herds, and in the coastal waters—walrus, seals, beluga, whales, and narwhals.
[5][6][7][8][9][10] In March 2011, a private equity fund in the United States and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA, the largest steel maker in the world, jointly purchased the small Toronto-based public Canadian company, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, that had owned the Mary River lease since the 1980s.